Echo Holt and the Philosopher's Stone
by littlemermxid
Summary: Echo Holt grew up with her mother, moving all around because of her "incidents". Her deadbeat father doesn't seem to care at all about her (or does he?). Once she starts going to Hogwarts, she gets sucked into an adventure with the famous Boy-Who-Lived. Book One of the Echo Holt series
1. Chapter 1

I had never been a normal kid, even for a witch.

Throughout my entire life, whenever something could go wrong, it did. Not only did it go wrong, but it went worse than anyone could ever expect. Mum and I had to move around a lot, because of the strange things that always happened around me. The Obliviators helped, of course, after one of my "incidents" (as my mother called them), but people could still tell that I was different.

I had moved all across the U.K., from big cities like London and Glasgow, to the countryside, to little villages. Mum had put me in public schools, boarding schools, and private schools, but one of my "incidents" would always happen and we would end up leaving. The Obliviators used to come whenever something happened, but after a while, they only came when something was horrible enough that everyone would need to be obliviated or else the Statute of Secrecy would be broken and the whole country (and the whole world) would know of the existence of the wizarding world.

After every single one of my "incidents", my mum always sat me down at our kitchen table and gave me some sort of dessert, always a different one. She would tell me that whichever school I was at, whichever town we were in, wherever we were wasn't right for me. Every time we moved, we always had a calendar on our refrigerator that would count down the days until I would be able to go to Hogwarts. Hogwarts seemed like Heaven to me, a place where I would be almost normal.

But I still wouldn't be normal.

You see, some of my "incidents" couldn't be explained even by wizarding standards.

Most of the witches and wizards my age that I knew had little spurts of accidental magic, and while I had those too, there was more. Sometimes, monsters would try to come after me. I know, I know, being scared of "monsters" makes me sound like a child, but I swear that's what they were. They were never any of the creatures that I had read about from Mum's old Care of Magical Creatures textbook. They were always something... something scarier, something more powerful. It terrified me.

Mum always told me they wouldn't be able to come after me at Hogwarts, but I could always tell that she doubted herself when she told me that.

My mother was a concert pianist and she had put me in music lessons when I was just three years old. She tried teaching me piano, but little three year old me threw multiple tantrums and quickly put a stop to that. I ended up loving stringed instruments, especially the cello.

I inherited my love for music from both her and my father. I didn't know much about him, not even his name. I just knew that my parents met at a school for music in New York and that he was a talented musician ("the best I've ever heard," according to my mother). He had left my mum when I was just a baby and I never knew why. He had never sent me a birthday card, bought me a Christmas present, or come to visit me at any of my cello recitals. I liked to pretend that he didn't exist sometimes, but with Mum that was pretty difficult. "Your father would be so proud of you," she often told me when she walked in on me, engrossed in a difficult piece of music. I always wondered how that made any sense. How would he be proud of me when he never even cared that I existed?

"Echo," my mum whispered from the door of the music room in our house, interrupting Vivaldi's Summer, one of my favorite pieces to practice. Mum held an envelope in her hand and she had a grin on her face.

"Is that it?" I almost squeaked out. "Is that my Hogwarts letter?"

"Yes it is!" Mum exclaimed.

I quickly laid my cello down and ran up to her, nearly ripping the letter out of her hands. I stared at the address for a few seconds, a sense of pride shooting through me.

Miss E. Holt

The Golden Bedroom

67 Kent Street

Bradford

West Yorkshire

Tearing open the thick envelope, I read the letter once, twice, even a third time, trying to understand all of the information written on the sheet of parchment. It was written in an elegant script, which was killer on my dyslexic eyes.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

 _Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Miss Holt,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

The second page was written on the same sort of parchment in the same elegant script, which was beginning to give me a migraine.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

 _UNIFORM_

 _First-year students will require:_

 _1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

 _2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

 _3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

 _4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)_

 _Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags._

 _COURSE BOOKS_

 _All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

 _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

 _A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

 _Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

 _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

 _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

 _Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

 _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

 _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble_

 _OTHER EQUIPMENT_

 _1 wand_

 _1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set glass or crystal_ phials

 _1 telescope_

 _1 set brass scales_

 _Students may also_ bring, _if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad._

 _PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS RE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK_

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Lucinda_ Thomsonicle _-Pocus_

 _Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions_

"Ow," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "That's going to take some getting used to."

"I came prepared," she said, pulling a bottle of Tylenol out of her pocket.

"Thank god," I said, opening the bottle and dry-swallowing two pills. "How on earth am I going to survive this next year without Tylenol?"

Even though Mum and I were both half-blood witches, we lived a predominately muggle lifestyle. Mum always said that wizards were lazy since they used magic for everything, taking the easy way out most of the time. Whenever any wizards or witches visited us, they were always shocked that we lived mostly like muggles. One reason why we lived like this was because Mum worked as a piano instructor with lessons in our home, and many of her clients wouldn't exactly enjoy having lessons in a home where the dishes washed themselves, the laundry laundered itself, and the food cooked itself.

"When can we go to Diagon Alley?" I excitedly asked my mum.

"My 2 o'clock just called in so I don't have a lesson until 6:30 tonight," Mum replied, checking the clock on the wall. "That's not for another six hours."

"Can we go now, Mum?" I begged her.

She nodded and I rushed out of our music room, through the living room, and straight towards our fireplace. Mum grabbed her purse from off the couch and grabbed the container of Floo Powder off the windowsill (we had it disguised as a flower pot with a fake flower inside). We each grabbed a handful of the powder and I stepped into the fireplace first.

"Diagon Alley," I stated dropping the Floo Powder and being engulfed in the green flames.

Moments later, I appeared in one of the fireplaces in the Leaky Cauldron used specifically for the Floo Network. There were families sitting at different tables around the restaurant, with bags from the different shops in Diagon Alley. I just knew that they were shopping for Hogwarts and a burst of excitement surged through me. By now, Mum had also come through the fireplace and I knew we would soon be on our way.

"Merlin, is that you Katherine?" a witch, around my mum's age, asked from a table near the fireplaces.

The woman looked like she was in her early thirties. She was pretty tall and very tan with dark blue eyes. Her light brown hair was waist-length and very curly. Sitting beside her was a boy about my age who was clearly her son. He had the same light brown hair as his mum (but his was nowhere near as curly, it was wavy instead), the same dark blue eyes, and he was just as tan as she was, but he also had freckles all across his tan skin. I wondered if they were vacationing on an island or on the beach or something.

"Lisa Carmichael!" my mum exclaimed, walking up the same witch. "I haven't seen you since... was it Eddie's baptism?"

"It must have been," the woman, Lisa, grinned. "I didn't know you had a daughter. Is it her first year at Hogwarts?"

Everytime Mum and I ventured into the wizarding world, something like this happened. Since we were so distant from the rest of our people, Mum's old friends always made a big deal about seeing her.

"This is my daughter Echo," Mum introduced me to her friend. "She'll be a first year."

"Echo? That's a unique name," the boy spoke up.

"It's Greek," I explained to him.

Every single time I introduced myself to someone, they had something to say about my name. Sometimes they would make echoing sounds, but usually they just had something to about how weird (or in this kid's case, "unique") it was.

"Wow, and this must be Eddie?" Mum asked her newfound (or found again?) friend Lisa. "Is it his first year too?"

"I'm a second-year, in Ravenclaw," he declared, a proud grin on his face. "Which house do you think you'll be in, Echo?"

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor," I told him, "but I wouldn't mind being in Hufflepuff like my Mum."

"Why not Ravenclaw?" Eddie asked me curiously.

"There is absolutely no way that I could be a Ravenclaw," I began explaining to him. "School has always been pretty hard for me since I'm dyslexic. I'm not bright enough to be a Ravenclaw."

My mum and Lisa continued their conversation (which seemed to be dragging on forever), when suddenly I heard Lisa ask if the two of us wanted to go shopping with her and Eddie.

"I don't see why not," Mum said to Lisa. "You don't mind, do you Echo?"

"Uh, I guess not," I said.

Mum, Lisa, Eddie, and I left through the backdoor of the Leaky Cauldron, which led to an empty little courtyard with a brick wall. I knew that if you were to touch a certain brick on the wall with your wand that it would open up and we would end up in Diagon Alley, which was exactly what Eddie did. An archway appeared that led onto a cobbled street with a sign saying 'Welcome to Diagon Alley'.

Every time I went to Diagon Alley, I was amazed. Living a mostly muggle lifestyle made everything in the Wizarding World that much more amazing to me.

"Our first stop is Gringotts, like always," Lisa said to Eddie. "Do you two need to stop at Gringotts too?"

The answer was yes, so the four of us began walking to the snowy white building that I knew was Gringotts Bank. It towered over the other little shops so it was impossible to miss. Next to the bronze doors at the entrance of the bank stood a goblin in a crimson and gold suit. The short little creature bowed to the four of us as we entered the bank.

Once we entered through the doors we were in a vast marble hall. There were a hundred goblins sitting behind the long counter doing various bank things. Eddie and Lisa walked up to one free goblin while Mum and I walked up to another. This one had a nameplate that read 'Rothway'.

"Good morning," Mum said to the little goblin who looked younger than the rest of them. "We've come to visit our vault."

"And which vault is that?" the goblin asked us.

"The Holt Vault," Mum said, handing a small golden key to him.

After looking closely at the key, Rothway asked us to follow him. We followed him through a narrow stone passageway lit with torches. We approached a small cart that the three of us climbed into and then we were off.

The ride through the bank went very quickly and made my mum very dizzy. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it. Once we stopped, Rothway led Mum and I up to a vault. He unlocked the door and we walked inside the vault.

The Holts weren't one of the old rich wizarding families, with mountains of galleons and priceless family heirlooms in our vault. When Mum's parents died, we were left with a lot of money. We had more than enough money to get me through school.

Mum handed me a money bag and we began piling galleons into it. The bag was magical, somehow, because the inside was much bigger than the outside. It was kind of like Mary Poppins' bag. We had more than enough money for all of my school supplies and I could not wait to buy everything.

We rode back up to the ground floor of the bank in the same little cart. The Carmichaels were waiting for us at the door to the bank and we all walked out together.

"Do you two mind doing some of the shopping by yourself?" Lisa asked Eddie and me.

"We need to do some of our own shopping too, you know," Mum said to the two of us.

"We'll be fine, Mum," Eddie said to Lisa.

"Be careful, Echo," Mum said to me, giving me a look that I knew all too well, before she and Lisa walked off.

"Where do you want to go first?" Eddie asked me.

I looked around Diagon Alley at the different shops around us. The closest one was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Let's get my uniform first?"

"Okay," Eddie nodded.

The two of us walked into Madam Malkin's shop, where there were a few other young witches and wizards getting their Hogwarts uniforms. Madam Malkin and multiple employees were rushing around the shop trying to help all of us.

"Do you two need your Hogwarts uniforms?" a witch who looked like she had just graduated the year before asked us. Her nametag read 'Miranda'.

"Just her," Eddie said to the witch. "I don't need new robes this year."

Miranda led Eddie and me to the back of the shop where the rest of the Hogwarts students were. It seemed like all of them already knew each other because they were all talking animatedly like they were best friends. Miranda had me stand on a stool as she slipped a long robe over me and began to pin it.

Eddie began telling me all about Hogwarts. He told me about the feasts in the Great Hall (which I could not wait for), the changing staircases (which were a bit ridiculous in my opinion), the crazy feud that Slytherin had with everybody ("you better watch out for them" Eddie said), the Quidditch games, the Forbidden Forest where he had served plenty of detentions ("Why is it forbidden but you have to serve detentions in there?" I asked), and all of the hilarious pranks that this pair of Gryffindor twins did all of the time. During Eddie's stories, I noticed that a few of the other first years had ended their conversations in order to listen to Eddie. By the time he had finished, my robes were all fitted and we were ready to go.

After we paid for my robes, Eddie and I went into the book shop called Flourish and Blotts. Just walking into the store gave me a headache. There were shelves stacked all the way up to the ceiling with books all around the huge store. Luckily for us and all of the other Hogwarts students, all of our textbooks were in one area of the store and our books weren't stacked all the way to the ceiling. We each grabbed our textbooks from the bookshelf and went up to the front to pay for them.

Eddie continued telling me more and more stories while we continued our shopping trip. I had almost forgotten that my mum and his had disappeared hours ago.

The last shop that we visited was Ollivanders, the place where nearly everyone got their wands. It was a shabby little store, with the letters peeling off the front door. Eddie and I stepped inside the little shop. It was dark and empty inside, only being lit by one single lantern. There were thousands of wand boxes piled up to the ceiling in the store.

"Good afternoon," a soft voice said, causing both Eddie and me to jump in surprise.

An ancient old man, almost as old as I imagined Dumbledore to be, was standing before us.

"Hello," I greeted him slowly.

"Ah yes, I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Miss Holt," Mr. Ollivander said to me. "I think I know just the wand for you."

After he said that, he walked to the back of the store, behind the aisles and aisles of wands.

"That was weird," Eddie muttered.

"Is he usually not this weird?" I asked him.

"No, he's weirder than usual today," Eddie said to me. "When I got my wand, he had a measuring tape and was measuring me everywhere, even between my nostrils, to find the right wand. I wonder why he isn't doing that to you."

Just then, Mr. Ollivander was back up front with a box in his hands. He took the wand out and handed it to me, saying, "I have a very good feeling about this one, Miss Holt. This is a 12 inch Laurel wand with a Hyacinth flower core. This is the only wand I have ever made with this core, but I believe that it is the perfect wand for you."

As soon as I took the wand from him, I felt a sudden warmth in my fingers and I could feel the sun shining down on me. I felt the summer breeze going through my hair and a golden glow came out of my wand.

"Oh yes, indeed," Mr. Ollivander said to me. "Your father would be very proud of you."

I quickly paid seven galleons for my wand and then rushed out with Eddie

"You're right, he is weird," I said to Eddie. "My dad was a muggle, how does Mr. Ollivander know anything about my father?"

"Merlin, that was freaky," Eddie agreed. "Are you sure he was a muggle?"

"Mum always said he was a musician she met in America," I said to him. "I asked her if he was a wizard once and she told me no. How on Earth does Ollivander know anything about my father?"


	2. Chapter 2

Nearly everyday for the next two weeks, Eddie and I had been sending each other letters, sometimes even multiple times a day. He had even spent the day at my house one day. We both knew that there was something about my father that Mum had never told me. We were going to find out what it was.

Eddie loved mysteries. He read so many mystery novels (both wizard ones and muggle ones) and he wanted to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as a detective when he graduated from Hogwarts, so of course, he wanted to help me.

So far, we had nothing.

We knew what my mum told me about my father, but we didn't know if it was true? According to her, he was a muggle American musician, but how was I to know if that was true or not?

Eddie and I had two questions and they both were because of Mr. Ollivander. Number one: How did Mr. Ollivander know anything about my father? And number two: Why was my wand, of all cores, a Hyacinth flower core? A core that he had never used before?

Today was the first of September, the day that we were going to Hogwarts.

I packed my trunk the day before, filled with my robes, all of my school supplies, most of my clothes, a million pairs of socks, and multiple pairs of shoes. My wand, a set of robes, my little bag of money, and some snacks were packed away in my sunflower backpack and all of my sheet music was in my cello case. I was ready to venture into the wizarding world, to start my magical education, to be around people like me.

"Echo, are you ready?" my mum called up the stairs.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I murmured.

Swinging my backpack over my shoulder, I grabbed my trunk and pulled it out of my bedroom. I would say that dragging it down the stairs was the hard part, but really the hard part was Mum interrogating me.

"Do you have your wand? All of your books? Your robes? All of your clothes? Socks, shoes?"

Which I answered yes to all of her questions.

"I'll go put this in the car, you go get your cello," Mum told me, taking the trunk out of my hands.

By the time we finally fit my cello and my trunk into our too-small car, we were running late. The only reason we didn't end up being late was because of how fast (very, very fast and probably very, very illegal) Mum was driving. We arrived at Kings Cross Station with only about eight minutes to spare.

"Do you remember how to get onto the platform?" Mum asked me in a quiet voice.

I nodded, before walking to the barrier separating Platform 9 and Platform 10 with my trunk and backpack. I instinctively prepared for impact with the solid brick wall in front of me, even though I knew that it wasn't actually solid. Closing my eyes, I walked through the wall.

Opening my eyes, I saw that I was on a platform packed with people like me. There was a big sign overhead saying 'Platform 9 and 3/4' and another one that read 'Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock'. There was a scarlet train with 'Hogwarts Express' in a fancy script written on the side of it. Young witches and wizards were saying goodbye to their families, many parents with tears in their eyes.

"You should probably get on the train before every compartment is full," Mum said from behind me, causing me to jump in surprise.

"I'll miss you, Mum," I said, giving her a tight hug.

"I'll miss you too," she said. "Promise to write?"

I gave her a look and we both laughed. She handed me my cello case and I wondered how in the world I would get all of this on the train.

"I'll try, but I'm not making any promises," I smiled at her.

"Echo, Echo!" a voice nearby called.

I turned around, looking for whoever called my name. I soon discovered that it was Eddie, when he rushed over to me.

"You look like your hands are a bit full," he said, laughing. "Want me to help you with that?"

"Thanks," I said, handing him my trunk. "Bye, Mum," I called over my shoulder, before following Eddie onto the Hogwarts Express.

"Do you want to sit with me and a few of my friends?" Eddie asked me as we walked past a few of the compartments. "They're quiet, reading most of the time anyway."

"Sure," I nodded. "It's much better than sitting alone."

Eddie led me to a compartment, a bit further down the train, with a few people already sitting inside of it. As Eddie put my trunk on the rack above us, I looked around at them. There were four of them, three boys and one girl, and they were probably second years. I could tell that they were all Ravenclaws from their uniforms, which they were already wearing, shockingly.

"Hey everybody, this is my friend Echo," Eddie said to the people sitting in the compartment. "Echo, this is everybody."

"Hi, Echo," the girl in the compartment said to me, looking up from the book she was reading. She had very pale skin, strawberry blonde hair in a pixie-cut, freckles covering her face, and blue-grey eyes. "My name is Felicity."

The three boys in the compartment introduced themselves to me as Duncan, Grant, and Jeremy. Duncan was reading a book on Quidditch, while Grant and Jeremy were talking about their summers.

The train soon began to move and I realized something. I was going to be around people like me for the first time in my entire life.

"You're going to be a first year, right?" Felicity asked me.

I nodded.

"Which house are you hoping for?"

"Gryffindor," I grinned. "Hufflepuff would be nice too, but Gryffindor is where I hope to end up."

"Just hope that you don't end up in Slytherin," Grant said.

"Shut up, my sister's in Slytherin," Jeremy said, whacking Grant.

"Slytherin is a bad house," Grant continued, seeming to ignore his friend. "Not everyone in Slytherin is evil, take Jer's sister for example, but most of them are. They're all racist and their families all supported You-Know-Who during the war and-"

"That's not completely true," Felicity interrupted him. "Slytherin has a bad rep, but not everyone is bad."

"You're only saying that because you think that Adams bloke is cute," Grant said to her.

"Shut up, I do not," Felicity said, her pale face turning as red as her hair. "Peter and I are just friends."

Felicity and Grant continued their argument, while Eddie and I began talking about our mystery. He had a quill and a piece of parchment out, ready to write down whatever we thought.

"Do any of you know what a Hyacinth flower is?" Eddie asked his group of friends.

"I think I read about them in my herbology book," Jeremy said to us. "Why?"

"My wand-"

"My mum mentioned them over the summer," Eddie interrupted me, giving me a 'shut up and let me do this' kind of look. "I was just wondering what they were."

"You should ask Sprout when we get back to school," Duncan said from behind his Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Mum told me about them one time," Felicity said to me. "She's obsessed with that old Greek mythology, I have no idea why."

"What did she tell you?" I asked her. "And my mum loves everything Greek. Even my name, Echo Alessandra, is a Greek name."

"Um, well, there were two Greek gods, Apollo and Zephyr," she began. "Apollo was the sun god, of course, and Zephyr was the god of winds or something. I can't really remember. Anyway, they were both into this human guy named Hyakinthos. I think Zephyr was really jealous one day and killed Hyakinthos with a frisbee or something like that. Flowers came out of his blood and Apollo named the flowers Hyacinth. That's just the crazy story my mum told me though, so it probably didn't help much."

"Thank you," I slowly said to Felicity.

What did Greek gods have to do with my wand? That made me even more confused about everything.

At the top of the sheet of parchment, Eddie wrote something. After a few seconds, I was able to read that it said 'Hyacinth flower'. Under that, he wrote a quick summary of the myth, before getting into his trunk and taking out his copy of 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'.

"Can you look for Hyacinth flower in here?" Eddie asked me, handing the textbook over to me.

"I can try," I nodded, before flipping to the index. "Can you spell that?"

"H-Y-A-C-I-N-T-H," Eddie spelled out to me as I looked for the flower in the index.

"Found it," I said after about thirty seconds, before flipping over to page 338 and slowly beginning to read. "'The Hyacinth flower is a per... perennial plant in the family of aspar... asparagus? No, asparagaceae.'"

"Damn, sorry Echo," Eddie said to me. "I forgot you're dyslexic, I can read it."

"Thank you," I said to him.

Eddie began reading the page on the Hyacinth flower. Every time he found something noteworthy, he explained what he read to me. "The Hyacinth flower comes in different colors and each of the colors has a different meaning. Blue means sincerity, yellow means jealousy, purple means sorrow, red means play time or recreation... Hey, it even mentions that myth in here. It can also mean rashness, as in the behavior of the god Zephyr. Huh, interesting. It used to only grow in the Mediterranean, but now it's mainly grown in Holland."

About fifteen more minutes of reading later, a sweet older lady came up to our compartment, opening the door. She had a trolley filled with different kinds of candy and drinks. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked the group of us.

"Do you have any Cauldrons Cakes?" I asked her, instantly beginning to crave my favorite food. "Oh, and Butterbeer?"

"Of course dear," she said to me.

"I'll take three Cauldron Cakes and a Butterbeer, please," I said to her, getting into my backpack and grabbing my money bag.

"That will be five sickles and fourteen knuts," she said to me.

"Thank you," I said as I handed her my money and she handed me my snacks.

The other people in the compartment each bought a bit of candy and a drink and after about a minute or so the trolley lady was off to another compartment.

"I wonder what the Weasley twins are going to do for their first prank this year," Duncan said, finally putting his book down.

"You know, I heard it might have something to do with Lee Jordan's new pet tarantula," Jeremy said to him.

"I hate spiders," Duncan shuddered.

"The Weasley twins, are they the ones that you told me stories about?" I asked Eddie.

"They are a legend at school," Eddie nodded. "They're only third years, but they are the greatest pranksters that Hogwarts has ever had."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration," Jeremy said. "When my aunt was in school, she told me all about this group of pranksters. Everything that they've done surpasses the Weasleys."

"Speaking of the Weasleys, do you think they're going to be beaters again this year for the Gryffindor team?" Duncan asked.

"I doubt there's anyone better than the two of them," Felicity said. "Echo, you should see them on the pitch. Or anywhere, really. It's like they are the same person. They always know exactly what the other one is thinking, which is why they're so good at everything."

"It's a little creepy," Grant nodded. "They do this thing where they finish each other's sentences, but not once in a while. Every single sentence. It's freaky."

"You said they're in Gryffindor?" I asked Duncan, to which he nodded. "Well, hopefully, I'll be in the same house as them. Maybe I'll be able to help with some pranks."

"Oh, I doubt it," Felicity said. "They only work with each other, and sometimes with Lee Jordan. No one else."

A few minutes later, the five of us were talking about our summers. Eddie had spent most of his visiting his aunt and uncle in California which was why he was so tan. He spent nearly every day on the beach, swimming and surfing. Felicity had spent hers with her parents, who were both muggle professors, getting caught up with what she missed in muggle school. Duncan spent most of his summer practicing Quidditch at this little Quidditch day camp with a few members of the Hufflepuff team. Grant and both of his dads went to Spain for part of the summer, touring both the muggle and magical sights. Jeremy's summer was mostly spent in Diagon Alley, helping his aunt in her little coffee shop. And I spent almost every second of my summer practicing my cello.

Later, a girl with frizzy hair and big teeth came up to our compartment. She was wearing her uniform already and had this bossy sort of aura.

"Has anyone seen a toad?" she asked. "This boy, Neville, has lost his."

"Uh, no, sorry," Felicity said to her. "Are you a first year?"

"Yes," she said to us. "My name is Hermione Granger."

"Nice to meet you," Felicity said. "Felicity Eastchurch."

"Do you know how long until we get to the school?" the girl, Hermione, asked all of us. "I cannot wait for all of our lessons to start. Everything that I've read about in our textbooks is so interesting, don't you think? I'm the only witch in my family and they were so proud when I got my letter. I read so many extra books and I just hope that it is enough. I don't want to be too far behind everyone else."

"We should be at the school in about two hours," Eddie told her.

"Thank you," she said before she walked out.

"Bets?" Grant asked.

"Definitely a Ravenclaw," Felicity said.

"No, no, no, she's going to be a Hufflepuff," Duncan said. "I mean, look at her. She is such a Hufflepuff."

"She is such a Ravenclaw," Jeremy said.

"I think so too," Eddie nodded.

"Echo? What do you think?" Grant asked me.

"Um..." I had no idea. "Gryffindor?"

"You think?" Eddie asked.

We spent the rest of the ride talking about the upcoming school year. By the time we got off the train, I was pumped for this school year.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a voice called.

"Echo, you see that tall man over there?" Eddie asked, pointing me in the direction of the voice. "You have to go over there with him, okay?"

"Okay," I nodded.

The tall man Eddie was talking about was not just tall, no, he was practically a giant. He was at least eight feet tall and had so much dark hair on his face.

"C'mon, follow me," he said to the crowd of first years around him. "Any more firs' years? Firs' years follow me!"

The big group of first years followed the man down a steep and narrow path. Everyone was silent for some reason.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the man called over his shoulder.

A second later, every single one of us first years said "Oooohh."

The path we were on suddenly opened up to the edge of a great black lake. On the other side of the lake, atop a high mountain, was a beautiful castle with many towers and turrets.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man called, pointing to about fifteen little boats.

I got into an empty boat, but a few people got into it with me. They introduced themselves as Hannah, Padma, and Parvati.

"Everyone in?" the big man shouted. "FORWARD!"

The little boats began moving, gliding across the lake. Everyone was silent, staring up at the castle overhead.

A few minutes later, we reached the other side of the lake. We climbed out of the boats, onto the shore, and began walking up to the castle. Once we reached it, the giant man knocked three times on the castle door.


	3. Chapter 3

The door swung open, revealing a tall witch with a stern face in emerald robes.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said to her.

"Thank you, Hagrid," the witch, Professor McGonagall said to him as she opened the door all the way.

The entrance hall was very large, so large that a whole corner store could fit inside of it. It was definitely big enough for the forty-or-so of us first years to comfortably stand inside. The walls were made of stone and lit with flaming torches and the ceiling was way too high to even see. There was a large marble staircase in front of us that I assumed would lead us to the upper floors.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said to us. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," Professor McGonagall continued. "The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in the Great Hall in front of the rest of the school.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," Professor McGonagall continued. "Please wait quietly," she said, before exiting the room.

"Does anyone know how they sort us into houses?" one of the girls from my boat, Hannah, nervously asked a few of the people around her.

"I think it's some sort of test," Parvati (or was it Padma?), said to her.

"You'll be fine, Hannah," the other twin said. "It's nothing to worry about."

The twins were impossible to tell apart. They were both very pretty Indian girls with the exact same face. I knew it would be difficult to learn to tell the two of them apart eventually.

"What the-" Hannah shrieked.

Several other people screamed because of all of the ghosts that had just entered the room. They were white like marble and somewhat transparent. They all seemed to be in the middle of some sort of important conversation, but eventually, a fat little ghost noticed us.

"New students!" the fat ghost exclaimed. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few of us first years nodded, while most of us stood perfectly still in fear. I was part of the second group.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" the fat ghost continued.

"The Sorting Ceremony's about to start," Professor McGonagall's sharp voice said, causing all of the ghosts to quickly float away. "Form a line and follow me, please."

The two twins stood just ahead of me, with Hannah standing right behind me. Hannah and I both had blonde hair, but mine was more of a golden shade than hers. Both of our eyes were blue, however, my eyes were a sky-blue and hers were a dark shade. Hannah no longer looked nervous, for some reason, but her cheeks were still bright pink. I wondered if that was just her natural complexion.

The line of first years walked through a set of double doors that led us into the Great Hall. The Great Hall was so beautiful. The ceiling was dotted with stars ("It's bewitched to look like the sky outside," I heard Hermione say) with thousands and thousands of candles floating in midair over four long tables. I knew that those were the house tables where the rest of the students were sittings. At the front of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

At the front of the line was a four-legged stool with an old wizard's hat on top of it. The hat was extremely dirty and had been patched a million times. The hat looked like it had been at least a thousand years old. A second later, a rip in the hat opened wide like a mouth and it began to sing.

 _"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if_ you've _a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

Everyone in the hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables.

"So we just have to try on a hat?" the twin that I thought was Padma asked.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," Professor McGonagall said, holding a long roll of parchment. "Abbott, Hannah!"

"Good luck," I whispered before Hannah walked up to the hat.

The hat was way too big and fell down over her eyes. After a moment, the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table all the way to the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down.

I didn't pay attention to much of the sorting since I didn't know most of the people being sorted. I did notice that the Hufflepuff table looked the friendliest and always cheered the loudest when they got a new housemate (maybe that was because they were the fullest table), which made me admire the house even more. The Slytherin table seemed a bit scary, due to nearly every single on of them having a mean expression on their faces.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione ran up to the stool and eagerly put the hat on her head. I immediately looked over to my friends at the Ravenclaw who were eagerly watching Hermione's sorting.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted.

After a few more people, Professor McGonagall read, "Holt, Echo," off of her long sheet of parchment.

As I walked up to the stool and put the hat on my head, I looked at my friends at the Ravenclaw table. Felicity, Eddie, and Duncan each gave me a thumbs up, while Grant and Jeremy seemed to be arguing. Duncan lightly slapped one of them, and then they both looked up at me.

"Difficult, my dear, very difficult," the hat whispered into my ear. "You're very curious and you do have a thirst for knowledge, but not at all like a Ravenclaw. No, no. Very kind, very loyal, just like Hufflepuff. But, what is this? Bravery, so much bravery. You have a difficult life ahead of you, I know that better than anyone here, so the house for you is GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table loudly cheered for me as I sat the hat down and walked over to the table. I took a seat next to a first year boy... maybe named Seamus? I couldn't really remember.

"Congratulations, Echo!" a boy, probably at least a fifth year, said to me, holding his hand out for me to shake. "I'm Oliver Wood, Quidditch captain. I hope to see you cheering at all of our matches!"

"You bet I'll be there," I grinned at him.

"Echo, that's a weird name," the boy next to me said in an Irish accent. "My name is Seamus."

"It's a Greek name," I explained to him.

"You're Greek?" Seamus asked me. "You don't really look like it."

He was right. Even though my mum came directly from Greece, I looked nothing like a Greek girl. Greek girls were usually dark haired and olive-toned, which was exactly what my mum looked like. Instead, I had golden-blonde hair, pale skin, and sky-blue eyes. I was also very petite.

Seamus continued talking to me, making it impossible for me to even pay any attention to what was going on in the sorting.

"Patil, Padma," Professor McGonagall eventually said.

I shushed Seamus as Padma walked up to the stool. The second the hat was on her head, it yelled "RAVENCLAW" and I saw my friends at the Ravenclaw table cheer. I also cheered for her.

"Patil, Parvati," Professor McGonagall said right after that.

And as soon as the hat touched the top of Parvati's head, it yelled "GRYFFINDOR!" My table loudly cheered for her as she skipped over to us and took a seat beside me.

"Good job," I smiled at her.

"Thank you," she said, not paying much attention to me and instead she was looking over at the Ravenclaw table at Padma.

A few people later, Professor McGonagall read, "Potter, Harry," off the list.

As a small black-haired boy stepped forward, the hall instantly broke out into whispers.

"Potter, did she say?" Seamus asked me.

I nodded.

"The Harry Potter?" Parvati asked. "He doesn't look very impressive."

She was right about that. The saviour of the wizarding world was a very small black-haired boy who honestly looked a little malnourished. The hat blocked his eyes so no one could see them. The hat stayed on his head for a few minutes, much longer than any of the previous sortings that I had bothered to pay attention to.

Eventually, the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

This Harry Potter boy received the loudest cheer yet. The entire Gryffindor table, most of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, and even part of the staff table applauded him. A pair of red-haired twins at my table yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" and I immediately knew that they were the Weasley twins that I had heard about earlier. Harry ended up taking a seat near Seamus, Parvati, and I.

"Nice to meet you, Harry," Seamus said in his thick Irish accent. "My name is Seamus. This is Echo and that's Parvati," he said, pointing each of us out.

"Thomas, Dean," a tall black boy later joined us at the Gryffindor table and so did a tall ginger boy named, "Weasley, Ronald". Each of them got a loud round of applause, but nowhere near as loud as Harry's.

An old man with long white hair and a long white beard had gotten to his feet. I knew that he was Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts headmaster. "Welcome," he said, "to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Is he mad?" I heard Harry ask an older ginger boy as the food appeared on our plates.

So much food appeared on the table. There were so many kinds of meat that it would be impossible to name them all, potatoes in so many different forms, vegetables of all sorts, and I could not wait to eat it all.

As we ate our meal, I noticed that Parvati seemed a bit off. When I asked her why she just mentioned Padma's name. She said that they were always exactly the same growing up and she spoke about how shocked she was that her sister was in Ravenclaw and she was in Gryffindor. Looking over at the Ravenclaw table, I noticed that Padma had an almost identical expression on her face.

Somehow, Seamus ended up cheering Parvati up and we ended up having a pleasant meal.

When everyone had eaten as much food as they could, the food disappeared from our plates. A moment later, hundreds of desserts appeared. There were strawberries, ice cream in a million flavors, apple pies, fruit salads, Jell-O, and so much more.

As we began eating dessert, we all began talking about our families.

"I'm half-and-half," Seamus said to us. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mam's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out!"

Eventually, the desserts disappeared too. Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again and the hall fell silent.

"Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you," Professor Dumbledore said. "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to everyone.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"Is he serious?" I heard Harry ask the same older ginger boy from earlier.

"Must be," the boy said. "It's odd, usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere.I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."

"And now, off to bed," Professor Dumbledore said.

The first year Gryffindors followed the ginger boy, who was a prefect and introduced himself as Percy, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. We began walking up flights and flights of stairs until we eventually came to a sudden halt. In front of us hung a portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Caput Draconis," Percy said, and the portrait swung forward like a door and we found ourselves in what must've been the Gryffindor common room.

Percy pointed the girls through one door to their dormitory and I'm assuming the boys through another. We walked up a spiral staircase and found a door that said 'First Year Girls'. Walking through the door, we found our beds at last. There were four four-poster beds hung with deep red curtains. All of our trunks and my cello were already brought up. Each of us quickly changed into our pajamas and we each almost immediately fell asleep into our beds.


	4. Chapter 4

Waking up the next morning was beyond weird. Sharing a room with three girls that I had just met the day before and didn't know anything about was such a different experience. I was an extremely early riser, unlike my roommates. For my entire life, I had always been up before the sun would rise because I loved watching the sunrise. It was such a beautiful sight, watching the sky go from black to a beautiful pink to a clear blue from the window in Gryffindor tower. My roommates were still asleep as I watched the sunrise, and they were just waking up when I was about to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Good morning, Echo," Hermione yawned as I opened the door to my dormitory. "Going to breakfast, already?"

"I've been up since before the sunrise," I explained to her. "I'm an early riser."

"Today is our first day of classes!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, jumping out of her bed. "I'll be down to breakfast soon. I cannot wait! I wonder what we have first..."

Hermione was going on and on and I saw that her talking had woken my other two roommates, Parvati and Lavender, up. Lavender was groaning and Parvati was glaring daggers at Hermione's mane of hair.

"I'll see you guys down at breakfast, later," I said to the three girls in my dormitory, before I rushed down the stairs and out of Gryffindor Tower.

There were very few people in the Great Hall when I got there. There were a few older students wearing prefect badges at the tables and a few other people that I didn't know. Felicity, Eddie, and Duncan were sitting at the Ravenclaw Table, each of them with a sheet of parchment in there hand.

"Morning," I said, once I reached their table. "Whatcha looking at?"

"Our timetables," Duncan said to me.

"Potions, first thing?" Eddie groaned.

"At least it isn't History of Magic first," Felicity said. "Potions is interesting, at least."

"But Snape is so... ugh," Duncan groaned

"Isn't he Slytherin's Head of House?" I asked my three friends.

"Yeah, and he hates anyone who isn't in Slytherin," Grant said as he walked up to the Ravenclaw Table with Jeremy by his side.

"Especially Gryffindors," Jeremy said. "Morning, Echo."

"Where do I get my timetable?" I asked the second years.

"Is McGonagall here yet?" Felicity asked, looking up at the Head Table.

"You'll have to ask one of the Gryffindor prefects," Eddie explained to me. "And you better pray to whatever God you believe in for you to not have History of Magic first."

"Binns is a real drag," Grant muttered. "Talk about naptime, am I right?"

Throughout the first week of school, I heard hundreds, no, probably millions, of whispers about Harry Potter. Everyone was trying to catch a glimpse of him, even though we'd all be going to school with him for the next seven years.

Finding my way through Hogwarts was nearly impossible. The castle was so big with so many different halls and classrooms. There were a hundred and forty-two staircases throughout the castle and they were sure to give me a workout. The people in the paintings wouldn't always stay in the paintings and the coats of armor could walk all around the castle.

Finding the classes were hard, but the classes themselves were even more difficult. I had always known that magic was difficult, but I had never known how difficult. History of Magic was crazy boring, just like Grant said. Professor Binns was a ghost and he always droned on and on. It was impossible to pay attention and reading in the book was even worse because all of the letters flew off the page. We had three classes a week in the greenhouses, studying Herbology with Professor Sprout. It was very interesting but I had a feeling I wouldn't be very good at it. Wednesday nights at midnight we had Astronomy, which was one of the easiest classes for me. It felt like I had a... connection to the stars. Charms was also an easy class, but Transfiguration was horrible. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a bit of a joke because Quirrell was kind of a wimp.

Potions was by far one of the classes that I was most excited for, even though (in the words of Duncan), "Snape is so ugh". I only had Potions once a week and it was a double on Fridays, with the Slytherins.

Today was the day of our first Potions lesson and they took place down in the dungeons of the school. I walked down to the classroom with two Gryffindor boys, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were probably my best friends in my house. It was freezing down in the dungeons and the room was quite creepy.

Professor Snape, like every other teacher (except for Professor Binns, who quite honestly did not care at all about his students), started the class by taking the roll call.

"Echo Holt," Professor Snape read off of his sheet of parchment.

"Here, sir," I said, raising my hand in the air.

Professor Snape continued taking attendence, when he paused at Harry's name, like a few other teachers had.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Our new celebrity."

A few Slytherin boys, one of them was a blond with slicked back hair and the other two were probably baboons, laughed as Snape said that and continued until Professor Snape finished taking attendence..

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," Professor Snape began. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

I felt excitement seep through my veins. Even though I was not at all excited to have to deal with Professor Snape for the next seven years, I was more than excited for this class.

"Potter!" Snape suddenly exclaimed. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry was silent with a stumped look on his face, while Hermione's hand shot into the air.

"I don't know, sir," Harry said to the professor.

"Fame clearly isn't everything," Professor Snape said, with a sneer on his face as he ignored Hermione's hand. "Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione's hand went higher and higher into the air, but Harry clearly had no idea what a bezoar even was. Most of the class probably didn't know what a bezoar was, because I clearly didn't.

"I don't know, sir," Harry said again.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Professor Snape continued, that mean sneer still upon his face.

I knew the answer to this one and almost raised my hand, but after remembering how Professor Snape was ignoring Hermione, I realized that it probably was not worth it.

"I don't know," Harry quietly said. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"

A few people in the classroom began laughing, including me, since Hermione was standing next to her seat with her hand as high as it could possibly go. Professor Snape, however, did not think that Harry was very funny.

"Sit down," Professor Snape snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

Suddenly, everyone was getting into their backpacks and pulling out quills and parchment. I began writing everything down, but because of my dyslexia, the words all ended up a mess.

"And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter," Professor Snape said. "Now, today we will be brewing a simple potion to cure boils. It is on page fifteen of your textbook and you will be working in pairs."

As soon as he said pairs, all of the Gryffindors began pairing up. Seamus and Dean were partners, and so were Lavender and Parvati. Ron and Harry were together, so were Neville and Hermione, and I was the lone Gryffindor. The Slytherins were all evenly paired up too, so I was by myself.

"Sir," I said to Professor Snape after walking up to his desk. "I don't have a partner. Do you want me to work by myself?"

"You can do that," he nodded his head.

I went back to where I was sitting previously and grabbed my backpack and the rest of my things, before moving to a different table, an empty one, and put my things down. I pulled my copy of Magical Drafts and Potions out and turned to the correct page. The potion was separated into two different parts and I decided to attempt to read over both parts before I began the potion.

 _ **Prat 1**_

 _1\. Add 6 skane fnags to the matror._

 _2\. Csurh into a fnie pwoder using the petsle._

 _3\. Add 4 mesuares of the csurhed fnags to your culadron._

 _4\. Heat the mitxure for 10 seocnds._

 _5\. Wvae your wnad._

 _6\. Laeve to berw and rteurn in 35 mitunes._

 _ **Prat 2**_

 _1\. Add 4 honred sguls to your culadron._

 _2\. Take the culadron off of the frie before adding the nxet inergdient._

 _3\. Add 2 procunipe quills to your culadron,_

 _4\. Stir 5 tmies, cocklwise_

 _5\. Wvae your wnad to colmpete the poiton._

I could feel a massive headache coming on as I read the potion, but I knew that I could do it. As long as I read every line before I completed the step, I'd be able to do it perfectly.

After getting all of the ingredients from the cupboard designated for students, I sat down and began my potion. ' _Add 6 skane fnags to the matror_ ', I read, and I knew that had to actually be ' _Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar_ '. So that's what I did. Every time I read a step, I just had to take a second to sort it out before doing the step.

Professor Snape walked around the cold dungeon, watching everybody work on their potion. He criticized a lot of people and it seemed like the only person who was actually doing the potion correctly was the blond Slytherin boy and his pet baboon.

"Miss Holt," Professor Snape said in a cold voice as he walked past me. "Why are you so far behind everyone else? You should at least be halfway through step six of part one."

I had just finished step three of part one.

"Sir, I'm dyslexic," I explained to the man who was quickly becoming one of my least favorite teachers.

"Ah, well, your potion is looking far better than some of these dunderheads who are steps ahead of you," he said, before walking off to another group to inspect their potion.

Um. Thanks?

Later, while my potion was brewing for the thirty-five minutes between part one and part two, Neville had somehow managed to melt his and Hermione's cauldron. Their potion was spilled onto their floor and looked as if it could burn you if you touched it. The entire class climbed up onto their stools, except for Neville who was covered in his potion and moaning in pain. I didn't dare to look at him because I knew he was covered in disgusting red boils.

"Idiot boy!" Professor Snape yelled, cleaning the spilled potion up with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville nodded.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Hermione, before turning to Harry and Ron. "Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."-

That was so unfair.

As the class continued, I was even more careful than before, because I did not want to experience the wrath of Professor Snape. I finished my potion just minutes before the class ended and it did look pretty good, if I do say so myself. I put a vial of it with my name on it on Professor Snape's desk with the other ones, a proud look on my face.

Later, at lunch that day, I decided to go over to my friends at the Ravenclaw Table to tell them how my first lesson with Professor Snape had been.

"What's up, Echo?" Grant asked as I took a seat beside Eddie. "How was Potions?"

"I do not even want to talk about it," I muttered, rubbing my head. "This headache is horrible."

"How was Snape?" Duncan asked me, looking up from his History of Magic textbook.

"He was actually... pretty nice," I said.

All five of my Ravenclaw friends gasped.

"Did you-" Jeremy began.

"-just say-" Grant continued.

"-Snape was nice?" Jeremy and Grant finished together.

"To me, at least," I corrected myself as I grabbed a green apple. "He absolutely despises Harry Potter. I have no idea why, though."

"There's a rumour that Snape used to be a Death Eater," Grant said to me.

"A Death Eater?" I asked, in shock.

"A Death Eater is one of You-Know-Who's follo-"

"I know what a Death Eater is, Eddie," I interrupted.

"Dumbledore would never hire a Death Eater, Grant," Felicity said, rolling her eyes.

"Felicity, we all know that Dumbledore is... a bit mad," Jeremy said, shaking his head. "Who says we know anything about him?"

"Dumbledore is a good wizard," Duncan said. "Did you never hear about Dumbledore fighting Grindelwald?"

"Of course," Grant nodded. "Everyone knows about that. But he was young then, he could've changed with age."

"I guess you're right," Duncan nodded.

"Hey, has your sister ever said anything about Snape being a Death Eater?" Jeremy asked Duncan.

"Jer, I doubt he parades through their common room showing off his Dark Mark," Duncan laughed.

"If he even has one," Felicity said. "Personally, I doubt it."

"You never know," Eddie mumbled.

"Hey, did you two ever ask Sprout about that Hyacinth flower?" Felicity asked Eddie and I.

We both shook our heads.

"We've got that class next," Felicity said after double-checking her schedule. "Maybe we can get there a bit early and ask."

"I have Friday afternoons off. I can go with you guys," I said. "Maybe I'll finally have some answers," I muttered the last part.

"This History of Magic essay is going to drive me as mad as Dumbledore," Duncan quietly said, looking back down at the textbook he had open.

"Binns doesn't even read those, y'know that right?" Grant asked. "Jer and I have this little competition."

"A competition?" I asked, a grin on my face.

"What we do is we come up with the weirdest-" Jeremy began, before being interrupted by Grant.

"-most ridiculous-"

"-craziest things to write about-" Jeremy continued.

"-and Binns always gives us O's," Grant finished.

"And you two say the Weasley twins are bad," Felicity shook her head.

"That works?" I asked, thinking about my History of Magic professor. "Wait, never mind. Of course Professor Binns doesn't read them."

"Does anyone know when the Quidditch tryouts are?" Duncan asked suddenly.

"No idea," Grant and Jeremy said simultaneously.

"Are you trying out?" I asked him.

"Of course!" Duncan exclaimed. "I tried trying out last year, but last year's captain didn't want any first years."

"What position are you trying for?"

"Beater," Duncan grinned.

"I'm trying out for Chaser and Grant wants to be a Keeper," Jeremy said, a look of joy on his face.

"Hey Samuels," Grant yelled down the table. "Has your brother announced when tryouts will be, yet?"

"Next Wednesday at 5," the Samuels boy yelled back.

"I'll be there cheering you on," I smiled at my three friends.

"We should probably get going if we want to get to class early," Eddie said to me and the rest of the table.

Eddie, Felicity, Duncan, Grant (groaning as Jeremy forced him up), Jeremy, and I slowly got up from the Ravenclaw Table. We walked out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall, and then down into the grounds. There was a warm breeze and I took my robe off, wearing just my uniform underneath. We eventually reached the Herbology Greenhouses, where Professor Sprout was standing outside.

"Greenhouse Three, you five," Professor Sprout said to the five Ravenclaws, before turning to face me. "Miss Holt, did you need something?"

"I actually have a question, Professor," I said as my friends walked into the greenhouse. "My wand... it has a Hyacinth flower core. Eddie and I have been doing research about it but we can't find much. I was wondering if you knew anything about it?"

"Hyacinth flower?" Professor Sprout questioned. "I didn't know that it could even be a wand core."

"It's the only one Ollivander has ever made," I explained. "Very rare."

"Have you read about it in your textbook?" she asked, to which I nodded. "The entry in there isn't very good but there are a few really good books in the library that you should read. I can give you a list next lesson if you want. Do you know anything about the mythology behind it? Or the magical properties of the flower? It's all very interesting. You should check out the book 'The Language of Flowers' from the library."

"Thank you, Professor Sprout," I said to the sweet woman.

I wondered if Mum knew anything about the flower.

Oh god, my mum was probably freaking out since I hadn't written her yet.

Since it was such a beautiful day out, I decided to sit down by the Black Lake and write a letter to my mum. I took a sheet of parchment out of my bag, along with an ink bottle and a quill, and a textbook to write against. I started writing, taking my time so I would hopefully spell almost everything correctly.

 _Dear Mum,_

 _I made it into Gryffindor! My house is amazing and my roommates are pretty cool, I guess. I'm not very close to anyone in my house yet, but I hit it off pretty well with Eddie's friends on the train. They're all second year Ravenclaws and they've been helping me find my way around the school._

 _My classes have been pretty hard, honestly. Transfiguration is a nightmare but I think I'm going to do well in Charms. I love Astronomy but staying up until midnight is going to be impossible for me. Shockingly, I'm pretty good at Potions. Everyone says that Professor Snape favours Slytherin and he's a horrible teacher (I don't disagree) but I enjoy the class. We made a Cure for Boils today and it took me a while to get it, but I think I Oced it. Is that a thing? I know muggles Ace things, so do wizards Oce it? I don't know._

 _I've been dying to audition for the Hogwarts Orchestra but auditions aren't until October. I saw a flyer for it in the common room. Apparently, the orchestra director is William Alexandre? He's supposedly a big deal in the wizarding world but I've never heard of him. I've been practicing Vivaldi's Summer constantly for the audition. Hopefully, I'll be good enough._

 _Love,_

 _Echo_

 _P.S. Do you know anything about a Hyacinth flower?_

Once I finished my letter, I decided to take it up to the Owlery to send to my mum and afterward I went up to Gryffindor Tower, into my dormitory to grab my cello to take to an empty classroom to practice in.


	5. Chapter 5

Owls delivered letters and packages every morning during breakfast, so the next Monday I wasn't at all surprised to see hundreds of owls flying into the Great Hall. I was a bit surprised to see a school owl drop a letter onto my plate of toast and berries.

"Thank you," I said to the owl as I ripped off a piece of toast to give to him or her. I didn't check the gender.

"Letter from home, Echo?" Seamus asked across the table from me.

"It's from my mum," I nodded. "God, I miss her."

"Me too," Seamus sighed, before laughing. "Not your mum, I miss my own."

I laughed as I ripped the letter open and slowly began to read it, trying to decode what she had written.

 _Dear Echo,_

 _Congratulations! I knew you would be in Gryffindor. Your father would be so proud to know that. How is Eddie? Tell me all about your new friends! I want to know everything._

 _I remember how hard the classes were when I was in Hogwarts. They'll get better. I was horrible at Transfiguration and Charms. Your father knew a lot about Astronomy, maybe you got your love for Astronomy from him._

 _You're doing Summer for your audition? Don't you ever get tired of performing that? If I were you, I'd practice something else. You are amazing at Summer, but you need to broaden your horizons. You need to leave your comfort zone. How else will you ever improve? You'll definitely be good enough to get into the Hogwarts Orchestra. It's in your blood. Make sure to tell me when your performances will be._

 _Why are you asking about Hyacinth flowers? I don't really know much about them._

 _Love,_

 _Mum_

Sometimes my mum was so weird. She always brought up my father in conversation but she never gave me much information about him, nothing useful at least. What she did tell me usually didn't make much sense, anyway.

After a day of difficult classes (Charms, History of Magic, and Defence Against the Dark Arts) there was nothing I wanted to do more than spend an afternoon with my true love, my cello. My professors, on the other hand, had a different idea for my afternoon.

I quickly discovered that the common room was not a good place to do homework if you actually wanted to get any of it done; there was a crowd of other first years by the bulletin board, excitedly talking about the flying lessons that would be starting soon, the Weasley twins were animatedly telling a story to a crowd of people about their first prank of the year, and one of the sixth or seventh years had snuck in some Firewhiskey and was passing it around to a few of the other older students.

After spending about fifteen minutes trying to read from my History of Magic textbook, I decided to finish my homework in the library. Maybe there would be peace and quiet in there. Reading, dyslexia, and a loud and crowded common room were not a good mix.

I put my History of Magic, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts textbooks back into my sunflower backpack, along with my quills and parchment, before leaving the crowded Gryffindor Tower. I didn't think that I would be visiting the library so often, but if I wanted good grades I knew I would have to work hard for them, harder than my classmates.

The library was a long walk from the Gryffindor Tower, down six floors and on the other side of the school, which was about a fifteen minute walk. I hadn't been in school very long, but I already knew that I hated walking up and down the staircases. The only bad thing about being a Gryffindor was having to walk up seven flights of stairs, multiple times a day. Most of the classrooms were on the first, second, and third floors anyway, so our tower was very out of the way.

"Hello, Echo," Felicity greeted me as I walked down one of the many staircases, on my way to the library. "Where are you going?"

"The library," I explained to her. "Gryffindor Tower is way too loud to get anything done."

"I can imagine," she nodded. "Ravenclaw Tower is bad enough, and we're supposed to be the studious ones. Just wait until exam times, I've heard plenty of stories about the crazy Gryffindor parties that are at the end of the year."

"They're already pretty crazy," I said, shaking my head. "Someone snuck in Firewhiskey and they're giving some to anyone who wants it. Anyway, what are you doing?" I asked as we walked down another flight of stairs.

"Trying to avoid Grant and Jeremy," Felicity explained. "They've been arguing all day."

"What about?" I asked, curious.

"No idea," she said, shaking her head. "It started off about Quidditch but I think it's about something much more serious now. "

"I wonder what they're fighting about," I said.

"It's probably nothing," Felicity said. "They'll be fine by tomorrow."

Thursday was the day of our first flying lesson. Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together every Thursday at 3:30 until we all were proficient on a broomstick (or until it got too cold outside to do any more).

I had never flown before, or even touched a broom that was used for anything other than cleaning. But plenty of other first years had flown before.

Seamus had spent most of his childhood setting things on fire and flying around the countryside. Mostly setting things on fire, though. The blond Slytherin boy (who I learned was named Draco Malfoy) told stories of him barely avoiding Muggles in helicopters, which didn't seem too likely, to me at least. I had overheard a few Hufflepuffs telling stories about flying as children in History of Magic one day. It seemed like nearly everyone from wizarding families had been zooming around on broomsticks as children, except for me.

My clumsy friend Neville had also never been on a broomstick before, but that was honestly probably for the best. He was clumsy enough and had enough accidents with both of his feet on the ground.

At 3:30 that afternoon, all of the Gryffindors hurried down to the grounds where our lessons would be. You'd think they'd be on the Quidditch Pitch, but apparently they weren't. Our lessons would be on an open field past the Quidditch Pitch. The weather was very nice, not a cloud in the sky, perfect for our lesson. The Slytherins were already there, each of them standing near one of the school's broomsticks.

"Everyone stand by a broomstick," our teacher, Madam Hooch, yelled. "Come on, hurry up."

Even though I didn't know much about broomsticks, I knew that the school ones were not very good. Surely, the school could afford better brooms for us, but I guess they weren't very important to the school's Board of Governors. These were all old and ugly and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. Duncan had told me all about broomsticks one day and I knew to watch out for these ones.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'UP'!"" Madam Hooch shouted.

"UP" everyone yelled.

Very few brooms went up, only Harry Potter's and Draco Malfoy's. Most of us, including me, had to yell 'UP' a few more times to even get it to move. Neville's, Hermione Granger's, and Lavender Brown's, were the last brooms of the entire class to go up.

"Up," Neville's said, his voice quivering.

"Are you okay, Nev?" I asked, noticing that Neville was shaking. "Maybe you should sit this out."

"I'm f-fine," he stuttered.

"You sure?" I asked. "Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing, you don't look well. I don't know much about flying, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be in the sky, when you're feeling like this. You could get hurt."

Madam Hooch spent the next hour or so teaching us the proper way to hold a broomstick, spending a while with each of us to make sure our grip was right. She spent about three or four minutes with each of us, but spent about ten to twelve minutes with Neville. He was still so nervous about flying, but he told me that he wasn't going to sit this lesson out and be ridiculed by Draco Malfoy, who already had begun to bully Neville.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you will kick off from the ground," Madam Hooch said to us. "Three... two..."

While the rest of the class waited for her to say one and whistle, Neville kicked off of the ground a bit early.

"Get down here, boy!" Madam Hooch screamed up at Neville who was rising into the air.

"Neville!" I yelled.

Neville was steadily rising higher and higher into the sky, first ten, then twenty, and then forty feet in the air. He was looking down at us from fifty feet in the air, a look of fright very obvious on his pale face.

"Madam Hooch, you need to go help him!" Parvati Patil exclaimed.

"Please don't fall, please don't fall," I whispered repeatedly.

My prayers weren't answered, though, because as Neville reached maybe sixty feet in the air, his broom chucked him off and he started falling through the sky.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched Neville's body descending through the sky. His broomstick kept rising higher and higher, before zooming towards the Forbidden Forest, probably never to be seen again. Neville's body was still falling and much closer to the ground now. I wanted to help my friend, I needed to help him, but I hadn't learned anything useful in the amount of time I'd been in school. Feeling useless, I knew that I could do nothing that would help him.

"Madam Hooch, do something!" I shouted desperately. "Don't just let him-"

Before I even had a chance to finish my sentence, Neville's body hit the hard ground with a thud. There was a nasty crack, somewhere in my mind I somehow knew it was his (now broken) wrist, and a scream of pain. I quickly ran over to my friend's still body, along with most of the rest of the class.

"Nev, are you okay?" I asked my clumsy friend once I reached his body.

Neville's wrist was twisted at an odd, unnatural angle, confirming his broken wrist. His face was even paler than before, nearly the color of our house ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. His eyes were filled with tears, but trying not to let any of them fall in front of all of his classmates.

"H-Hospital W-Wing," he whispered, his voice filled with pain.

"I'll take you, Nev," I said as I tried to help him stand. "It's just a broken wrist, I think."

By now, Madam Hooch had reached us, her face just as white as Neville's, "You leave those brooms on the ground while I take this boy to the Hospital Wing," she yelled to the class as she started walking towards the school.

Neville and I followed Madam Hooch across the grounds towards the school. I had my arm wrapped around Neville's body as he clutched his wrist.

"Just wait until the Prophet hears about this, I'll be out of a job!" I heard Madam Hooch say in an exasperated voice. "I've been telling Dumbledore for years that we've been needing new brooms, but it's just not important enough to the School Board!"

"Professor, I can take Neville to the Hospital Wing, if you want," I said to Madam Hooch. "Maybe you should go talk to Professor Dumbledore."

"Yes, that would work," Madam Hooch said to me, before hurrying off towards the school, while Neville and I continued at our leisurely pace.

"Oww," Neville groaned.

"Can I see your wrist, Nev?" I asked my friend.

Groaning, he nodded and held his wrist out. I reached out and touched his wrist.

"Oww!" he shouted. "I said you can look, not touch!"

"Sorry," I said, my hand still touching Neville's wrist.

Suddenly, I felt like there was a ray of sunshine shining directly on Neville and me. I felt a cool breeze, and... a warm familiar presence of some kind. Instead of just Neville and I standing there, it felt like there was a third person right there with us. Someone I had never met before, but somehow I knew them. They were proud of me, I thought, before realizing how crazy I sounded. I felt my hand that was holding Neville's wrist grow warmer, before the mysterious presence disappeared and everything went back to normal.

"What was that?" I asked, dropping Neville's wrist.

"What do you mean?" Neville asked me.

"You didn't feel that?" I asked Neville, as I looked around the field.

"I felt nothing," he said. "Hey, my wrist feels better!"

"This is really weird," I said to him. "Let's just go up to the Hospital Wing."

We reached the closest entrance to the castle that was already beginning to feel like home to me, when Neville said, "You can say it, you know."

"Say what?" I asked him as we began walking up a flight of stairs.

"'I told you so'," he said. "I should've listened to you."

"I'd never say that, Nev."

By then, we had reached the Hospital Wing, a place I hadn't visited yet but had heard plenty about from my Ravenclaw friends.

"Hello, dears," the matron, Madam Pomfrey, greeted us. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Flying lessons," Neville said to her.

"Ah, there's always one each year," she said, shaking her head. "What happened?"

Neville began telling her the story about his broomstick and him falling to the ground, breaking his wrist, and then he mentioned me touching his wrist and him feeling better. Madam Pomfrey then began doing a few silent spells, probably to check if I truly did somehow heal his wrist.

"Wow," she said to Neville and I. "Miss Holt, somehow you did heal him. Do you have any healers in your family?"

"Not that I know of," I said, shaking my head. "My mum is a musician and I've never met my dad, but he was a muggle."

"Maybe you just have a natural gift of healing," I said to her.

"Maybe," I said, not daring to mention the weird presence I felt right before Neville's wrist somehow healed itself.

Madam Pomfrey kept us in the Hospital Wing for a while, at first trying to convince me to become a healer when I grew up, and then telling us stories upon stories about our parents while they were in school. Neville's mum, a woman named Alice Longbottom, had spent quite a bit of time in the Hospital Wing while she was at Hogwarts. Apparently she was quite a dueller back in the day and had taken a few nasty curses and ended up here a lot, but she was a good fighter and more often than not put someone else here. It was clear that these stories that Madam Pomfrey told made Neville feel a bit ambivalent. I didn't know anything about Neville's parents but since he lived with his gran it was possible that they had both died in the war.

We got there at almost five o'clock and by the time we left it was nearly eight Dinner was already over in the Great Hall, much to our displeasure, so we walked back up the seven flights of stairs to our tower.

"Password?" the portrait of the Fat Lady asked us as we reached the entrance to our tower.

"Caput Draconis," I said confidently.

"Wrong," she said to us.

"What do you mean it's wrong?" Neville asked her, a look of confusion on his face.

"That's what it was this morning," I said to her.

"The password changed at noon today," the Fat Lady said to us.

"What are we supposed to do then?" Neville asked her.

"You'll just have to stay out here until someone else comes by," she explained to us. "I can't let you in without a password."

"Maybe we can find a Prefect," Neville suggested. "Or someone who knows the password?"

"I'm sure there is someone who can give us the password in the library," I said, nodding my head. "Let's go."

So Neville and I descended down six flights of stairs, and across the school, to the library. By the time we got there it was already 8:30 and the library closed about an hour from now at 9:30, thirty minutes before curfew.

"Echo!" a voice called out as we entered the library.

"Shhh!" Madam Pince, the librarian, shushed the person who yelled my name.

I looked around the library, searching for whoever called my name. After a minute or so, I saw that it was one of my friends in Ravenclaw. Grant, Jeremy, and Duncan were all sitting at a table in a corner of the library.

"Do you wanna say hi to my friends?" I asked Neville, pointing to the three Ravenclaw boys.

"Okay," he nodded so we walked towards the table my three friends sat at.

"Hi guys, this is Neville," I said as I introduced Neville to my friends. "Neville, this is Grant," I said, pointing to the dark-haired boy who was tickling a very annoyed blond boy, "and that is Jeremy," I said, before pointing to the black haired boy who was reading a broomstick magazine, "and that is Duncan. They're second year Ravenclaws."

"Hi Neville," Duncan said, looking up from his magazine. "Hey, you missed our try-outs today, Echo."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," I said to him, having completely forgot about the Ravenclaw Quidditch try-outs because of everything that happened this afternoon. "Neville and I were in the hospital wing all afternoon."

"Are you okay?" Grant asked me. "Do I need to curse anyone?"

"We were in there because of me," Neville explained to them. "Our first flying lessons were today-"

"Yikes," Jeremy said.

"-and my broom chucked me off at least sixty feet off the ground," Neville finished.

"Those brooms are evil," Duncan said, shaking his head. "I swear, they're at least forty years old. I won't ever ride one of those in any of our matches."

"You made the team?" I asked excitedly.

"You're looking at Ravenclaw's new Beater," Duncan said, a bright smile on his face.

"What about you two?" I asked Jeremy and Grant (who had quit tickling Jeremy by now).

"I'm a reserve Chaser," Jeremy said, "so let's hope someone gets knocked off their broom during one of our matches."

"Jer!" Grant exclaimed, lightly whacking his best friend.

"Kidding, kidding," Jeremy laughed. "Grant made the team as the new Keeper."

"Congratulations, you guys!" I exclaimed.

"Shhh!" Madam Pince shushed us again, giving the table a stern glare.

"We'll be at all of your matches," I said, whispering this time so we wouldn't be kicked out of the library. "So, I see you two aren't fighting any more," I said to Jeremy and Grant.

"How did you-"

"Felicity," I said, interrupting Grant.

"Of course," Jeremy and Grant said simultaneously.

"What happened with you two?" I asked, curiously.

"Jeremy said something about my dads," Grant explained to me. "He didn't mean for it to be an insult, but it kind of was."

"Again, I'm sorry," Jeremy apologized.

"It's fine, Jer," Grant said, giving him a small hug.

Neville and I had forgotten all about the forgotten password problem until we were kicked out of the library at 9:30. We made our way back up to Gryffindor Tower, walked up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, and then realized "oh yeah, we didn't figure out the password".

"I guess we're stuck here until morning, Nev," I said.

"Guess so."

"Wanna play I Spy?" I asked him. "It'll help pass the time."

"What's I Spy?" Neville asked me.

"A muggle game," I said, before explaining all of the rules to him. "You in?"

"Sure," Neville said to me. "So all I do is say 'I spy something... pink?' and you guess it."

"Yup," I explained to him. "Is it the Fat Lady's dress?"

"You're right," he said to me.

"Okay... I spy something grey," I said to Neville.

"Ooh, is it that suit of armour?" Neville asked me.

"Nope."

"That painting of Garrison the Grey?"

"Nope."

"What about that rat over there?"

"Ew, no."

"I give up," Neville said.

"It's the wall," I revealed.

Neville and I played I Spy for a little while, and then a few other muggle games to pass the time, before we both ended up falling asleep at almost eleven o'clock.

"Shut up, both of you!" a voice yelled, waking me from my dream.

"Mrs. Norris?" another voice asked.

"No, it's me," I said, my voice groggy.

I looked up to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking down the corridor.

"Echo, what are you doing out here?" Hermione asked me. "I didn't see you in our dormitory, why are you sleeping out here in the corridor?"

"Thank goodness you found me!" Neville said, waking up from his slumber. "I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."

"Shut it, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now," Ron said to him, "the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm?" Harry asked Neville.

"Fine," Neville said, showing them. "It was mended in about a minute."

I silently thanked Neville for not telling them that I had anything to do with it.

"Good," Harry said to him. "Now we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later-"

"Don't leave me!" Neville said as we both scrambled to our feet, "I don't want to stay here."

"Don't get us caught," Ron said, glaring at Hermione, Neville, and I. "If any of you get us caught, I will curse you into oblivion."

"Do you even know what oblivion means?" Hermione asked, before Harry shushed her.

The five of us walked through corridors with our only source of light being the moon in the windows. I, along with probably everyone else, kept expecting to run into the caretaker Filch or his evil cat, Mrs. Norris. I had no idea where we were going, but we ended up in the trophy room on the third floor. It was pitch black in here, but I knew we were alone.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, but everyone stayed silent.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.

"Sniff around, my sweet," muttered a voice in the room beside us. It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. "They're in here somewhere, probably hiding."

Harry began waving at all of us to follow him, so we all ran out of the trophy room as quiet as possible.

"This way!" Harry mouthed to us, and we began to creep down a long hallway.

We could hear Filch getting closer and closer to us. The five of us were silent, until Neville let out a frightened shriek and began to run down the corridor, toppling right into a suit of armour. It was so loud that we probably woke up the entire castle.

"RUN!" Harry suddenly yelled.

The five of us sprinted down the corridor, no longer caring if Filch and his evil cat were following. We ran down the hall, through multiple secret passageways and ended up near the Charms classroom, which was extremely far from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the wall.

"Me too," Ron also panted.

"I - told - you," Hermione gasped.

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Rower," Ron said. "As quickly as possible."

I nodded, still gasping for breath.

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry as we started walking back up to our tower. "You realize that, don't you?

"Mrs. Norris, do you hear them anywhere?" Filch's voice asked, somehow still following us.

"I think there's a passageway this way," Harry said, ignoring what Hermione said to him. "It's a shortcut."

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said, shaking my head.

We all followed Harry through the corridor and right at the end of it, we slammed into a locked door.

"This is it! We're done for!" Ron moaned.

"Oh, move over," Hermione said, pushing him away and pulling her wand out. "Alohomora!"

The door suddenly swung open, and we all ran through it. The five of us crowded around the door, silent as possible, hoping that Filch couldn't hear us.

After a minute or so of silence, we heard Filch cursing in rage, before turning around and walking off.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered.

Neville suddenly tugged on my shirt, and I turned around to see some kind of monster. It was a gigantic dog, with three heads. There were three pairs of crazy eyes, watching our every move, three mouths with ugly yellow fangs, ready to tear us to shreds.

"Harry, what is that?" I whispered.

By now, all five of us were staring at the monstrous dog, and the dog was also staring at us with his six crazy eyes. The dog looked ready to attack, and I was ready to run.

"Let's go!" Harry all but yelled, opening the door and running out.

The five of us all ran out of the room, which I now knew was the Forbidden Corridor on the Third Floor, and we all fell on top of each other on the way out. One of us slammed the door shut, and we took off down the hall, not stopping until we reached the Fat Lady's portrait on the seventh floor.

"Where on earth have you all been?" she demanded once she saw the five of us, gasping for breath.

"None of your business," Ron panted. "Pig snout."

The portrait swung forward and we all made our way into the common room, still gasping for breath.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron asked as he collapsed onto an armchair.

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"None of us were looking at its feet, Hermione!" I exclaimed.

"Did you see all of its heads?" Harry demanded. "Why would we be looking at the floor?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."

"It was standing on a trapdoor," Hermione said, as if it was obvious. "It's obviously guarding something."

"This is too much," I said, shaking my head. "I'm going to bed."


	6. Chapter 6

As the weeks passed, Hogwarts truly began to feel like my home, and my friends here began to feel like my family. The classes (except for History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts, of course) all became easier, the school became less of a maze, and I began to feel less homesick.

September turned into October, which meant that my audition for the Hogwarts Orchestra was coming up soon. The Hogwarts Orchestra was a small group, usually with only about twenty musicians, and they played at balls, ministry events, St. Mungo's Hospital, and at other prestigious events throughout the year. They had rehearsal every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, after all of the classes were over for the day. Members of the Hogwarts Orchestra were very talented, and most of them ended up performing in prestigious muggle orchestras after graduating, including the London Symphony Orchestra.

Nearly everyday, after finishing my homework, I would take my cello to an empty classroom on the seventh floor and practice my cello. I took my mum's advice about not playing Vivaldi and instead decided to audition with a medley of songs from Disney films.

On the weekends, I usually gave myself a break from homework and from my cello to spend time with my friends. Felicity and I had grown quite close; we often watched the Ravenclaw team's practices and did our homework together on the Quidditch Pitch, sometimes we stayed out past curfew talking about everything from her raging crush on a Slytherin boy (what a scandal!) to her crazy mum and my deadbeat dad, and once in a while she would just listen to me practice. She felt a bit like a sister to me (or at least the closest thing to a sister I'd ever get). Eddie and I were still trying to find out as much as we could about my dad, but we weren't able to discover much. Jeremy and Grant were constantly together so whenever I hung out with one, the other was there too. Duncan nearly always had his nose in a Quidditch magazine checking up on his favourite teams, or researching which broom he wanted to get before the first Ravenclaw match. The six of us were together as much as possible; we ate breakfast together every morning and sometimes we ate lunch together too, we spent our afternoons and weekends together doing homework or just hanging out, and they were the closest friends I had ever had.

My audition for the Hogwarts Orchestra was after classes on Halloween, at exactly 4:15 in the afternoon. I was so nervous that I had spent the whole day going over my music in my head, not paying much attention in any of my classes.

"You'll be fine," Felicity repeatedly said to me as her and Eddie walked me to the music classroom on the fifth floor of the school.

"No, I won't. I'm going to be a mess," I disagreed with her., setting my cello down on the castle floor. "William Alexandre is going to listen to me, tell me that I have absolutely no talent, and then I'll be a failed musician."

"I have no idea who this bloke is, but if he thinks that then he's an idiot," Eddie said to me, a reassuring smile on his face. "Now go in there and rock it."

"You've got this, Echo," Felicity said, giving me a playful shove towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, I checked my watch (4:14) and picked my sheet music, cello, and bow up off of the floor. Looking back once more at two of my best friends, I opened the door and stepped inside of the music room. The room was a lot like the rest of the castle, with stone walls and stone floors. The door I walked in led onto a stage with a single chair on it, where I took a seat. One man sat directly in the middle of the first row of seats in the audience, looking like he was most likely in his twenties with messy brown hair and a serious expression on his face.

"Echo Holt?" he asked, looking up at me from a sheet of paper.

"That's me," I nodded nervously.

"You may begin whenever you're ready," he said.

Taking another deep breath, I set my sheet music on the chair in front of me and began to play.

The piece began with a few melodic measures of When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio, a piece that always gave me a sense of longing. Later, it transitioned to Kiss the Girl from the Little Mermaid, which I believe gave a feeling of desperation. Then, it shifted to a mystical rendition of A Whole New World from Aladdin, before morphing into Can You Feel the Love Tonight from the Lion King. It ended the way it began, with When You Wish Upon a Star.

Throughout the audition, I felt the same sort of presence that I felt when I miraculously healed Neville's wrist back in our first flying lesson (in case you were wondering, nothing similar had happened since). My cello felt warm, as if I was playing outside on a sunny day, and there was also a cool breeze (similar to a fan or air conditioner, but there was no way that those would be used in Hogwarts). There was now another person in the room with Maestro Alexandre and I, watching from a seat in the back row. I didn't recognize the handsome man at all, but he felt familiar in a way, like I had seen him in the past. He was tall and muscular, with blond hair that was very similar to mine and a bright smile on his face.

As I finished the piece, I looked up at the man that I hoped would be my new music teacher. Still with a serious expression on his face, but the corners of his mouth seemed to be raised in a small smile.

"Miss Holt," he began, "that was very... interesting, would be the word I would use," the small smile that was growing on my face dropped into a blank expression. "Was that an original piece?"

"No, it's a medley from a few muggle films," I explained to him.

"Interesting," he said to me. "Now, tell me why you want to be in our orchestra, here at Hogwarts."

"Playing cello is my life," I began to explain, a smile appearing. "I love music more than anything in this world, sir, and there is nothing I want to do more than my life than become a professional cellist. This orchestra is one of the most prestigious youth orchestras in the magical world, if not the most prestigious, and I think that I would be able to learn a lot from being in it, if I made it in."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," he said to me, causing me to frown, "but we are in need of another cellist and I guess you will do."

"Really?" I asked him, feeling very excited and trying not to shriek.

"Our first rehearsal will be next Monday at exactly four o'clock. I expect you to be on this stage, sitting in the second cellist chair," Maestro Alexandre stated, before ushering me away.

I hurriedly grabbed my cello, bow, and sheet music, before rushing out of the room into the corridor where my friends were still waiting. I couldn't see my face, but I knew that I had a bright smile on it. Maestro Alexandre really accepted me into the Hogwarts Orchestra and I couldn't be more pleased.

"You were amazing!" Eddie exclaimed.

"We heard you through the walls," Felicity explained to me. "I knew you'd make it, I just knew it!"

"Congratulations," Eddie said, giving me a small hug.

Later that night, at the Halloween Feast, I ate at the Ravenclaw Table instead of my own house's. I wasn't sure if there was a rule about eating at other tables but so far this year I had ate most of my meals with the Ravenclaws and there didn't seem to be any issues with it.

The Great Hall was decorated in such an extravagant way. There were thousands of live bats in the hall, giving the room a spooky vibe. There were giant pumpkins at least ten feet tall in each of the four corners of the hall, and instead of the usual floating candles lighting up the hall, there were floating Jack-O-Lanterns used to light up the hall.

"Attention," Professor Dumbledore called out from his place at the Head Table. "I welcome you all to a truly magical feast at Hogwarts. Now, tuck in."

As Professor Dumbledore finished his incredibly short speech, food suddenly appeared on the golden plates like it had at the Start-of-Term Feast. The food here at Hogwarts was always good, but the food at the feasts was even better. The house elves must've spent all day preparing all of the food that we were eating, and I sent a silent thank you to them.

"Oh, congratulations on your music thing, Echo," Grant said to me as he grabbed a piece of chicken and scooped a large helping of mashed potatoes onto his plate.

"Audition, you mean?" I asked as I took a drink of my butterbeer. Another great thing about the feasts was that we got butterbeer, instead of the usual water, milk, tea, and pumpkin juice. "Thank you," I said, after he nodded. "You guys better all be at some of my performances, since I'll be at your matches."

"Do we have to-" Grant began to say.

"You know we'll be there," Jeremy said, lightly shoving Grant.

The feast continued on in a relatively normal way for a few minutes, until the perpetually nervous Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall. His turban was awry and he had a look of complete terror on his face. "Troll, in the dungeons!" he gasped. "Thought you ought to know," he then sank to the floor, looking dead but probably just in a faint.

"A troll!" Felicity all but screeched. "What do you mean there's a troll? How did a troll get into the school! Who would let a monster like that in?"

If only she knew about what other sorts of monsters were in this school.

Felicity wasn't the only one yelling, the entire hall was filled with chaos. People were screaming, crying, and some even looked like they were going to pass out. Duncan had his arm around Felicity, who was now shaking, while I just looked around in shock.

Hogwarts was supposed to be the safest place in the world. How did a troll get in? That just made no sense.

The uproar was silenced by several firecrackers exploding from Professor Dumbledore's wand. "Prefects, you will lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

"Our dormitories are in the dungeon!" a girl from the Slytherin table exclaimed, but everyone seemed to ignore her.

"Merlin, Imogen's dormitory in the dungeon!" Jeremy exclaimed, clearly not ignoring what the Slytherin girl had to say.

"There's nothing we can do," Grant stated. "Immy will be fine, Jer. She can take care of herself."

"Against a troll? I doubt it," Jeremy said, shaking his head.

"Well, someone will be able to take care of the troll if they run into it," Duncan said.

"I need to get back to my table," I started to get up.

"Ravenclaw Tower is closer, just come with us," Eddie said. "Besides, most of your house is already gone."

I looked over at the Gryffindor Table, and sure enough, the table was practically empty. Most likely Percy Weasley had led them out the instant Dumbledore said to.

"Ravenclaw House, this way," a blonde Ravenclaw prefect that I didn't recognize yelled out.

"You coming?" Eddie asked me as he and the rest of our friends stood up.

I nodded, standing up and beginning to follow my friends.

I had never visited Ravenclaw Tower before, but I knew that it was on one of the upper floors of the school, possibly the fifth or sixth. All of us followed the blonde prefect girl through the many halls and corridors of the school, and she clearly didn't notice the small lioness amongst the eagles, or she might not have cared.

We walked up a spiral staircase all the way until we reached the fifth floor and I knew we were on the west side of the school. All of Ravenclaw house stood outside of a normal looking door, but without a doorknob. There was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle and the blonde prefect knocked with it.

"What has many keys, but can't even open a single door?" the door knocker asked the blonde prefect.

"That's a hard one," Grant groaned, shaking his head.

"I don't know," another Ravenclaw said.

"I know this one," she said, a look of concentration on her face. "Is it a... a piano?"

"Correct," the door knocker said, before the door opened and let us all in.

"You don't have a password?" I asked my Ravenclaw friends as we walked towards the door. "You have a riddle?"

"Uh-huh," Eddie nodded. "It can get a bit confusing at times. If you get it wrong, you're locked out until someone else gets it right."

As I stepped through the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, I was amazed. The room had such an airy feel to it. It was a wide, circular room with high arched windows. There were tables, chairs, and bookshelves all around the room, and around the fireplace there were couches, armchairs, and loveseats. There was a tall marble white statue of a woman, most likely Rowena Ravenclaw, with a door to her left and to her right, that possibly led to the dormitories.

The blonde prefect started doing a head count, to make sure that everyone was here, when she reached me.

"You're not a Ravenclaw," the blonde prefect said. "What are you doing here? Your house must be worried sick."

"I'm sorry," I said to her, before beginning to explain myself. "Um, I got separated from my house, you see, so Eddie just said that I should come along with you guys. I didn't want to be by myself with a troll in the school."

"As long as you're safe," the girl nodded to me. "You can stay here until this troll situation gets sorted out, but then you have to go back to your house."

"Thank you," I said to the blonde girl.

"Thank Merlin that Penelope's in charge," Duncan said to me. "If anyone else was, I don't know if you'd be able to be here with us."

A few minutes later, a group of house elves appeared in the Ravenclaw common room with trays and trays of food and pitchers of different drinks. One of them snapped their fingers, and a stack of golden plates and goblets appeared.

"Professor Dumbledore asks us house elves to bring yous your feast, miss," the house elf in front said to the blonde girl, Penelope. "He's also says that everything is under control."

"Thank you," Penelope said to the house elves as they put the trays of food on the biggest table in the room.

"Dig in, I guess," she said as the house elves disappeared.


	7. Chapter 7

The beautiful weather soon turned icy and cold, as we got near the ending of autumn. The lake turned to ice and the ground was covered in frost every morning. Everytime anyone left the castle, they were bundled up in layers upon layers of clothing. It was so cold that I had even begun to wear trousers with my uniform instead of skirts. Winter was my least favorite time of the year. Sure, it was beautiful, but I loved the sun.

I had almost no free time anymore. School had gotten so much harder and I spent almost every spare minute doing my homework. Every Monday and Wednesday I had my orchestra rehearsals (I was second chair! Me, a first year, made second chair!), where we learned pieces of music and began to prepare for our many performances throughout the year. We were encouraged to practice on our own daily, but that was pretty difficult with everything else going on in my life. Felicity and I went to nearly every one of the Ravenclaw Quidditch practices where we mostly just did our homework instead of watching the team, oops. I had also started spending even more time in the library with Hermione, who had also been helping me a lot. If this is what it was like as a first year, I couldn't imagine what it would be like as a seventh year preparing for my N.E.W.T.S.

I had also become closer with Harry and Ron after our incident with the three headed dog. Hermione and the two boys had also fought the mountain troll on Halloween, which is something that I wished I could've seen. The three of them were practically inseperable now, except for when Harry had his secret Quidditch practices (secret to the rest of the school, at least) or when Hermione was in the library.

The first Quidditch match of the season was tomorrow, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, and our common room was filled with people preparing for the match. It was extremely noisy and impossible to do homework in. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and I were sitting together near a window, where she was checking our Charms homework for us.

"I can't believe Snape took my book," Harry grumbled while Hermione was looking over Ron's homework.

"What book?" I asked him.

"Snape took his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages earlier while we were outside," Hermione explained. "He said library books can't leave the castle."

"He made that rule up!" Harry exclaimed. "You know what? I'm going to go find him and ask for it back."

"Better you than me," Hermione and Ron both said at the same time, as Harry got up from his seat and made his way towards the exit of the common room.

"I don't really think that Snape's that bad," I said to the two of them.

"Snape is evil!" Ron exclaimed. "He always gives Slytherins special treatment and thinks that all Gryffindors are scum. And he was a Death Eater."

"He's always nice to me," I said. "I guess nice might not be the right word to use, but he gives me extra help because of my dyslexia."

"Teachers are required to do that," Hermione said to me.

"I know, but..." I trailed off.

By now, Hermione had finished correcting Ron's homework and began looking over mine. She spent a few minutes looking over it, before handing it back to me with a smile on her face.

"You're doing a lot better," she said to me. "You only have questions six and nineteen wrong, but there are a few spelling errors."

"Of course," I nodded. "I guess all that time in the library has been helping out."

Then, Harry rushed back up into the common room, out of breath and with a look of shock on his face.

"Did you get it?" Ron asked as Harry sat down with us. "What's the matter?"

"No," he shook his head, before beginning to speak in a whisper. "I was down in the staffroom, when I saw Snape with his ankle practically torn to shreds. Professor Flitwick was helping him treat the infection. Do you know what this means? He tried to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him that night, he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!" he finished.

"No, he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not a very nice teacher-"

"That's the understatement of the century," Ron muttered.

"-but he wouldn't try to steal this," she finished.

"Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," Ron snapped at her. "I'm with Harry. What about you, Echo?"

I didn't know what to think. I always tried to see the best in people, but if what Harry said was true, then there was proof that he had tried to get past the dog.

"I'm with Harry too," I quietly said.

"I wouldn't put anything past Snape," Ron said. "But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

"Who knows?" Harry said.

"We have to figure this out," I said, looking around at the three of them. "You in, Hermione?"

The next morning everyone was excited for the Quidditch match. The common room had been decorated with signs supporting our team and all of us wore our Gryffindor scarves, gloves, and hats.

I sat with Harry, Hermione, and Ron that morning for breakfast. None of them seemed to want to talk about what happened last night, but that was okay. Harry was clearly nervous for the match today, which was understandable, and no one wanted to bring that up in case it made Harry even more nervous.

"You've got to eat some breakfast," Hermione said to Harry, who had yet to eat any of the delicious breakfast in the Great Hall.

"I don't want anything," he said.

"Just a bit of toast," Hermione suggested.

"Or maybe some fruit," I said as I took a bit of a strawberry.

"I'm not hungry," Harry said.

"Harry, you need your strength," Seamus said as he put ketchup on his sausages. "Seekers are always the ones who get clobbered by the other team."

Good job, Seamus.

"Thanks, Seamus," Harry said, his face pale.

At eleven o'clock the whole school was out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch, looking forward to the first game of the season. After contemplating whether I should sit with my Ravenclaw friends (who were there to scout out the enemy) or my Gryffindor friends, I decided to sit with the Gryffindor. I sat with Ron, Hermione, Neville, Seamus, and Dean (who was a huge football fan and was excited to see his first Quidditch match) up in the top row. Ron, Dean, and Hermione had made a huge banner supporting Harry out of a sheet that Ron's rat chewed up.

The Gryffindor team (in red) and the Slytherin team (in green) walked onto the field from different sides. As soon as they appeared, the whole crowd was yelling in support of the team they were supporting. Madam Hooch was refereeing and I silently wished for her to be a better referee than flying teacher. After saying a few words to the two teams, Madam Hooch blew into her whistle and the two teams rose up high in the air and the match began.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor - what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too-" the commentator for the match, a third year Gryffindor named Lee Jordan, said as the match began.

"JORDAN!" Professor McGonagall yelled at him.

I didn't know much about Quidditch and I was relying on his commentary to understand anything that was happening.

"Sorry, Professor," he said. "And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve - back to Johnson and - no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Flint flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc - no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and - OUCH - that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger - Quaffle taken by the Slytherins - that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really flying - dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now, Angelina - Keeper Bletchley dives - misses - GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

The Gryffindors (and plenty of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs) cheered, while the Slytherins were yelling in rage.

"'Scuse me," a voice said as he made his way through the crowd.

"Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed.

The three of us squeezed together in order to give the giant man enough space to join us. Hagrid and I didn't really know each other, but he seemed like a nice enough man and I was happy he was with us.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," Hagrid said, motioning to a large set of binoculars around his neck, "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," I said.

"Harry hasn't had much to do yet," Ron explained.

Ten minutes passed and not much had happened since

"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan said into the magical microphone (or whatever was being used to project his voice. "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the - wait a moment - was that the Snitch?"

"Do you see it?" I asked, squinting in an attempt to see the tiny golden ball.

Harry was diving down after the snitch and so was the Slytherin seeker. They were neck and neck, getting closer to the snitch. It seemed like the chasers had forgotten what they were supposed to do, because they were also watching Harry and the Slytherin chase after the snitch.

A big Gryffindor boy blocked Harry and Harry began spinning off course, nearly falling from his broomstick.

"That's a foul!" Ron screamed.

"Send him off, ref!" Dean also yelled.

"Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air!" Hagrid angrily yelled as the Gryffindor chasers had a penalty shot.

"So - after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-" Lee Jordan said into his microphone.

"Jordan!" Professor McGonagall growled at him.

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinner, who scores, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

A few minutes later, Harry's broom began acting a bit odd. It looked like he was going to be thrown off of it, which even I knew that brooms weren't supposed to do that. He was tightly gripping his broom and looked like he was about to fall. His broom was zigzagging through the air, doing totally random things that shouldn't have been happening. Harry had a look of terror on his face. People in the stands were pointing up at Harry, who was by now dangling from his broom, holding on with only one hand.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispered to us all.

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice trembling. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic."

Suddenly, Hermione took Hagrid's binoculars and started looking frantically through the crowd.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked.

"I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Look at Snape."

Ron grabbed the binoculars first and I took them right after. Snape had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath.

"He's jinxing the broom," Hermione said in fear.

"What should we do?" I asked her, just as terrified as she was.

"Leave it to me," she said, before disappearing into the crowd.

Ron and I looked back up at Harry, who was still dangling from his broom. It looked like the Weasley twins were trying to pull him onto their brooms, but everytime they got close his broom would do something crazy again. They then dropped below Harry, circling around in an attempy yo catch him if he fell

"Come on, Hermione," Ron muttered desperately.

"What is she doing?" I asked, trying to see Hermione but failing.

After a minute, Harry was able to climb back onto his broom and I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding. Harry then dived down to the ground with one of his hands clapped to his mouth. He hit the ground on his hand and knees (one hand still clutching his mouth), when something gold fell into his hand.

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted.

The match ended in total confusion.

Twenty minutes later, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I were in Hagrid's little house where Hagrid was making tea for s.

"It was Snape," Ron explained to him. "All three of us saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Rubbish," Hagrid said as he brought Harry his tea. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"

"I found out something about him," Harry told Hagrid as he took a sip of tea. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot in his hands.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" he demanded.

"Fluffy?" Ron asked.

"That creature is called Fluffy?" I stared up at Hagrid.

"Yeah, I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"The what?" Harry eagerly asked him.

"Don't ask me anymore," Hagrid gruffly said to all of us. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it!" Harry exclaimed.

"Rubbish," Hagrid repated. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" Hermione demanded. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" Hagrid angrily said. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all of yeh, yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel-"

"So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" Harry asked, a grin on his face.

Hagrid looked furious with himself for letting another thing slip.


	8. Chapter 8

November quickly became December. The grounds became covered in snow in the blink of an eye, which meant that Christmas was coming. No one could wait for the holidays to start. I missed my mother and although I loved Hogwarts, sometimes I just needed a break from it all.

The Great Hall was beautiful and filled with decorations. Holly and mistletoe hung all around, and there were twelve giant (and by giant, I mean they were about the size of Hagrid) Christmas trees all around the room.

"Are you going home for Christmas?" Eddie asked me during lunch the day before the holidays started. "Duncan is staying here with his sister for the holidays, but everyone else is going home."

"Yeah, I am," I nodded, looking up from a frustrating piece of sheet music that I had marked all over. That particular piece had been driving me crazy.

"Maybe you can ask your mum more about your dad," Eddie suggested.  
Eddie and I were supposed to figure out who my dad was at the beginning of term (and learn about Hyacinth flowers), but school and everything else had gotten in the way. We were still just as stuck as we were on the trainride here.

"Echo, we're going to the library," Hermione said as she rushed over to me, Ron and Harry trailing behind her.

Even though I hadn't been trying to figure out who my dad was, I was trying to discover more about someone else: Nicolas Flamel.

"The library? On the last day of term?" Eddie asked me, giving me an odd look. "I'm a Ravenclaw and even I wouldn't do that."

"It's important, but I can't tell you why," I said to him, before getting out of my seat, waving bye to him, and following Hermione and the boys.

We had been searching for anything related to Nicolas Flamel, ever since Hagrid accidentally mentioned his name. We had looked through hundreds of library books, but we couldn't find a single thing related to him in any of them. Asking the librarian was not an option (she might mention to Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall or maybe even to Snape what we were researching, and we did not want that to happen), so we just had to look and look through hundred of books.

Once we reached the library, Hermione pulled out a list of books that she decided to look through, Ron pulled books off the shelves at random, I grabbed a book off the shelf and flipped to the index (before grumbling when I couldn't find his name, grabbing a different one, and repeating the whole process), while Harry ventured off into the Restricted Section.

Of course, we found nothing.

"Promise you'll look over break," Hermione said to Harry and Ron as the four of us left the library. "I'll ask my parents, but they probably won't know anything since they're muggles. You'll ask your mum too, Echo?"

"I'll try, but my mum never seems to answer any of my questions."

The next day, nearly all of the school was at Hogsmeade Station before the train was set to leave. The only first years from my house who weren't going home were Harry and Ron and I knew that there were only a handful of other students planning to stay.

Just like on the ride to Hogwarts at the beginning of September, I sat with my Ravenclaw friends. Felicity and I sat right beside each other, with Eddie, Jeremy, and Grant sitting across from us. Jeremy and Grant were (like always) bickering about something that probably wasn't actually important, while Felicity read a book, Eddie was scribbling something on a piece of parchment, and I decided that it would be a good time to nap.  
The ride home ended up being relatively uneventful.

"Don't forget about my performance, you guys," I said, lugging my cello behind me as we all got off the train later that day in London. "It's-"

"-tomorrow at eight o'clock at the Ministry's Christmas party," the five of them said simultaneously, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"You've told us-" Jeremy began.

"-about sixteen times," Grant finished.

"I'll be there if I can," Felicity said, a smile on her face.

"Your mum is dragging mine there, so I'll be there too," Eddie nodded his head.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed, pulling them both into a hug.

The second I got into my mum's car a few minutes later, she asked me a very odd question.

"How do you feel about camp?"

"Camp?"

"Summer camp," she clarified. "How do you feel about going to a summer camp?"

"Why would I want to go to a summer camp?" I asked her, a confused look on my face.

"I haven't been home in months. Plus, it's winter."

"Echo-"

"Is it a music camp?" I asked.

"They have... a bit of everything, I suppose," Mum said to me.

"For the whole summer?"

"Just about."

"Where is it?"

"Um... it's in America," she slowly said to me.

"America? You want to send me all the way to America for the whole summer?" I demanded.

I don't get angry very often, but I was getting a little hot-headed right then.

"Your father would want you to go," Mum said to me softly.

"What does this have to do with my father?" I asked. "You send me off to boarding school for the year and then you want to ship me off to America for the summer? Why? Do you not want me?"

"It would be good for you," Mum tried to explain. "Your father wants you to go."

"Why does my father suddenly matter?" I asked her. "I've never even met the guy, and now he gets to decide what's best for me? He gets to decide what I should do? No, that's not how things work. He can't just be a father when it's convenient for him."

"Echo, there will be a lot of people like you there," Mum said to me.

"Witches and wizards?" I asked. "I'm surrounded by them all year at Hogwarts. Why does that matter?"

"No, not witches and wizards," she explained. "You know how I've always told you that you're not a normal witch?" I nodded, before she continued. "These people, they're not normal muggles."

"So these people get attacked by crazy monsters too?" I asked. "Mum, I haven't seen any of these monsters since I started Hogwarts. I'm fine. I don't need to go there."

"You'll learn how to defend yourself there."

"That's what a wand is for," I said.

"You might not always have your wand, honey," Mum said, a small smile on her face as she took one of my hands (the other hand still on the steering wheel). "I just- I want you to be prepared for anything. You never know what will happen."

"I'll be fine."

"Echo, you're going," Mum said to me.

"No," I said defiantly.

"If you go, you'll get answers about your dad. Everything you've ever wanted to know and I haven't been able to tell you, you'll find out there. Who he is, what he does, you'll even find out more about your wand core while you're there," she said, looking like she was about to pull her hair out. "I want you to go because I love you, okay?"

"Fine," I grumbled. "You said they have music there?"

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "It's in New York. Maybe before I take you, we can check out the city?"

I silently grumbled.

As soon as I got home, I rushed up to my bedroom and pulled out a sheet of paper. Paper, the normal kind, not parchment. With a pen (a real ballpoint pen, how I've missed them), I quickly began writing a letter to Eddie.

 _Hey Eddie,_

 _You know how I konw literally nothing abuot my dad? Apparently he watns to send me to summer cmap. SUMMER CAMP. I've never even met him, and yet he thniks he soemhow has the rihgt to decide what's best for me? Mum is litesning to him too! She is frocing me to go to this camp. In America!_

 _The only reason I'm not compeltely angry (I'm still pretty upset) abuot this is becasue there's music there. Mum says that the cmap has a bit of evreytihng. She also said that I would learn about my dad there, which is really weird. She also metnioned my wand core? I guess I'll get answers about evreytihng there, but I still don't want to go._

 _Don't forget about my pefrormance,_

 _Echo_

 _P.S. A pen and paper is much better than quills and pachrment._

 _P.P.S. Sorry about all of the mipselled wrods. Dyslexia, you konw._

Using the family owl, I sent the letter off, before pulling my cello and all of my sheet music out and beginning to practice some more for my performance on Christmas Eve. As I ran through my music, I felt my anger wash away. Music had that kind of affect on me.


End file.
